Japan To Lift State Of Emergency This Week As New COVID-19 Decline

Japan has announced that the coronavirus state of emergency will end on Thursday, allowing the economy to recover as infections drop. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stated that pandemic restrictions will be gradually removed.

For the first time in over six months, Japan will be completely free of mandatory restrictions as a result of the lifting. Other measures, such as vaccine passports and virus testing, are being put in place by government authorities in anticipation of the loosened limitations.

The current state of emergency in Japan, which was announced in April, has been prolonged and extended several times. Despite public dissatisfaction with the restrictions, Japan has avoided the more stringent lockdowns enforced abroad. Since the start of the pandemic, Japan has recorded 1.69 million COVID-19 cases and 17,500 COVID-19 deaths.

Infections began to rise in July and peaked in mid-August, following the Olympics, with more than 5,000 cases in Tokyo alone and more than 25,000 cases nationally. Thousands of patients were forced to stay at home due to a lack of hospital beds.

Officials from the Olympics and the government dispute that the games were directly responsible for the increase, but analysts say the celebratory mood made people more socially engaged, therefore it was indirectly responsible.

After receiving criticism over his government’s antiviral precautions and his persistence in staging the Olympics amid a pandemic despite popular opposition, Suga chose to resign from both the party leadership and the premiership.

For the first time since April, Japan is set to lift all coronavirus emergency measures when they expire later this week as infections slow and the nation tries to reactivate its economy. https://t.co/jMi4TEbCFj
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 28, 2021

All 27 prefectures’ emergency and other measures are set to expire at the end of September. Some experts believe the state of emergency in 19 places should be reduced to a “quasi-emergency” status first to prevent virus resurgence, and the government is apparently exploring this plan.

Japan is eager to promote social and economic activities while also ensuring that the next wave of illnesses is avoided. The government is under pressure to maintain successful viral policies ahead of legislative elections in two months, as the ruling party picks a replacement for Suga later this week.

As milder weather increases concerns about a revival, Economy and Fiscal Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is also in charge of COVID-19 measures, indicated that the restrictions will be eased gradually.